Head's Welcome

Welcome to Walker's website.

I hope you will take the time to visit our beautiful campus and to experience, firsthand, what makes our School community unique. The students and teachers at The Ethel Walker School are committed to excellence. "Educational excellence" is a phrase that is often overused and one that can mean different things to different schools. Let me make it more specific to the Walker's experience for you.

I believe that educational excellence happens when a school knows who it is and what it is about. Educational excellence happens when pride and humility intersect in the everyday lives of our students — pride in their academics, pride in stretching towards a goal, pride in one's own heritage, race, ethnicity, or opinions. Our students have the humility to know that we all can become more caring people, humility to know that we must contribute to the world around us, and humility to know that while each of us can make but a small difference, our collective effort is critical. At Walker's we take service learning seriously, we take environmental stewardship seriously, and we take seriously our storied history of being a top notch college preparatory school for girls. It is worth noting that historically, in order to graduate from The Ethel Walker School, all girls were required to pass the entrance exam for Bryn Mawr College. So, educational excellence happens when we build upon the strong academic foundation of the past, while being bold enough to innovate in appropriate ways with an eye towards the future. For instance, we preserved over 300 of our 600 acres of land, accomplishing a notable and historic act of earth stewardship which will ensure that this land will be enjoyed undeveloped for generations to come.

At Walker's, we provide students with a safe environment in which to be leaders. At Walker's, our students have a sense of pride in themselves and in their School. Yet, our students are not pretentious. There is a palpable "down to earth" ethos that is one of the hallmarks of our community. At Walker's, academic rigor and a notable sense of warmth and nurture go hand in hand. While much of the world may believe that rigor and nurture are mutually exclusive, at Walker's we are proud to prove this theory wrong.

We hope you will explore the world of Walker's via this website, and plan a trip to visit campus soon. We look forward to welcoming you!

Elizabeth "Bessie" Cromwell Speers